I’ve been watching Something In The Water with interest over the course of the pandemic. Launching a contract brand seemed like an odd move during a time when you couldn’t approach the LCBO’s individual locations about sales and online sales for contract brewers were prohibited. Launching a Blackberry Vanilla Sour under those conditions seemed an even odder choice. It turns out that the plan was always to have a physical location, and while it took until this year to get that plan set in motion, Something In The Water will be launching later this spring in Liberty Village. 

The space, at 151 E Liberty Street will be just behind the Brazen Head Irish Pub, which is as much of a mainstay as exists in the neighbourhood. They’ll be competing locally with Big Rock at Liberty Common and Belgian Moon at the Stackt Market. It seems like an underdog story, but neither of those brewery associated locations are really about the beer being served; They seem to be about Oliver and Bonacini and some fever dream of shipping container sustainability respectively. With the Liberty Village 3 Brewers location dead, Something In The Water might be less of an underdog than is immediately suggested by the geography. 

Rocky Point Lime Lager
To me, at least, Lime Lager hearkens back to the dark days of 2012 when the streets were littered with cans of Bud Light Lime and Coors Light Iced Tea. At 5%, this is higher in alcohol and purports to have a Vienna Lager influence by way of Mexico, being named after a coastal town on the Sea of Cortez. That might make you picture a wedge of citrus in the neck of a Corona bottle, but the beer pours a medium Amber and the nose is significantly spicy.

It slaps you across the face with dessicated lime zest and there’s a lingering celery stalk greenery alongside. The peppery bite of the aroma keeps the suggested malt character light rather than verging into the nutty caramel range you might associate with Vienna malt. There is sweetness, but it’s overmatched on the palate by equal parts peppery spice and lime zest and a bitterness that is assertive enough be drying, but which lingers longer than you might expect. There’s significantly more staying power than you’d imagine, and I wonder what the average punter’s expectation will be walking into it.

Painted Lake Peach Crisp 

The smallest of the set, this is 3.8% and borrows its name from a lake that Tom Thomson painted. The peaches are sourced from Ontario, which is a good decision. It claims two whole IBU’s, meaning that I probably should have started here. 

There can be a tendency with beers soured using lactobacillus to develop a little off flavour, especially THP, which is present here but not massively. It’s a little akin to the baked Tostito tortilla chips which puff in the oven rather than frying. That said, considering the massive sourness of the Blackberry Vanilla flagship, I’m finding this to be comparatively restrained in terms of its tartness. It could almost benefit from splitting the difference. The sweetness of the peaches probably reduces the impact of the acidity on the palate. I will say that the amount of peach character is well judged. It doesn’t over power the beer and it allows the oats and wheat to come through. Needs more acid to claim the Berliner title legitimately.

Garrison Creek Local Pilsner

If all of these beers are named after a body of water, then this is named appropriately for the neighbourhood, and I imagine will probably be the biggest seller amongst beer drinkers with established palates. At 4.5% and 37 IBU, it’s not a surprise that the can text shouts out Plzen as an origin story. It features 100% Ontario grown ingredients, with malt from Barn Owl and hops from Tavistock. It’s unfiltered, so a bit rustic.

There’s a small banana ester on the nose and rather than a Saaz style presence, the malt is dialled up in the mix with a sugared cereal presence that speaks to freshly malted barley, maybe a touch of fresh legume nitrogen. That wholesome roundness on the palate speaks to sugars that haven’t converted but haven’t oxidized either. The hops come through dried grasses and roadside wildflowers on the nose and bitter greenery on the finish, but there’s something about the balance of flavour that I find reminiscent not of Pilsner Urquell but of Taras Boulba. I think as soon as that banana crept in Plzen was long gone. It’s sharply bitter and quenching, linear sweet to dry. 

Big Waterway New England
This is named after the St. Lawrence, presumably because you can’t call it Big River without getting sued by the Cash estate. 6.5% and 45 IBU. Surprisingly, it features Mandarina Bavaria from Germany and Bergamot from Michigan. Can says “orange bomb in a glass,” so I’m looking for that tall cool fresh squoze continental breakfast OJ.

This is definitely orange juice. I spent thirty seconds looking for the right language to qualify it before realizing that I pulled all these beers from the fridge at the same time and that it’s just a little warmer than the pitcher of OJ you’re picturing nestled amongst that white linen, sitting on ice. Visualization is your friend. I think there’s an issue here of expectation management, not from a flavour perspective, but from a genre perspective. Despite the hop choice, this slots into “West Coast IPA” in my head. It’s orange in colour, and while it’s opaque, it’s not really hazy. There’s not really tropical character. It’s maybe an Orange IPA. 

Pancake Bay Sweet Brunch Stout

5.3% and the winner of a Canadian silver at the World Beer Awards, this contains lactose, coffee, and maple syrup. I find myself pleasantly surprised here. The dark roast malt and the coffee are really the dominant presence on the aroma and at the finish, and while the maple syrup and lactose pop up to say hello at the head of the palate, just shortly downstream they recede leaving you with an extremely well balanced flavoured stout. This is not really my kind of thing, but the variety of dark malt character is probably bolstered by the additional sugars. It’s compelling, and at no point does any single element of it get out of control. Very solid. I may actually finish this. 

Overall Impression

Here’s what I like: There’s a sense of proportion to these beers. Rick Tanton, the brewer (and a bit of a jack of all trades if you google him), has been around long enough to have clocked a lot of trend and tasted a lot of things. This is all credible. I like that the ingredients are being pulled locally. The Ontario and Michigan hops have a lot of long term upside. I think this is an established craft beer drinker creating vibrant flavours for people who are new to craft beer. If you’re reading this, yes, there are younger people, and compared to the local competition in Liberty Village these are strong offerings.

Here’s my concern: If beer styles are pact between the brewer and the drinker, then some of the calculations are off here. Berliner Weisse isn’t tart enough. New England IPA isn’t hazy enough. Lime Lager you could maybe rebrand as an Amber Cerveza with Lime. These are little tweaks, but beer is about people and you gotsta manage their expectations. 

Something In The Water are worth checking out later this spring, and not just for completionists. If you find yourself in Liberty Village, at least two of these are worth a look in.